Personally, I think the BTB is much better than the SRX. I guess it's a matter of preference, but the BTB feels more like a high-end bass than the SRX. I'd say that's your best bet, but I haven't tried the Schecter or Epiphone.

last schecter I played was a neck through (i believe) with a nice looking cherry burst...the tone was nice and snappy, had nice clean punch to it, but the E-string was a bit soft IMO. The first thing I look at on a bass is how well the E-string can punch. I don't need it boomy, but it has to be sufficient, and with the schecter, it seemed like I had to max out the low control to get a decent low-end sound from it.

If you from Melbourne check out Billy Hydes in Blackburn and ask for Rob...he helped me when i was looking.

I had about the same budget as you do and i got the Spector Performance Series 4...it only cost $700 but dont let the price make you think its not good. The other bass i was really impressed with was the Yamaha BB604...has a good preamp lots of versatility..